10/31/2007

Halloween and self portraits




Well our halloween is about done for the year. True to form, we aren't trick or treating. I've never huge fan... But we did have a little bit of a party today at school. We played some pumpkin games, made a mosaic jack-o-lantern, and carved our pumpkin (yuck!) then we had some halloween candy for our dessert at lunch. (ha ha - we don't have to wait for ours!) Then this afternoon the weather was nice so we went out to play in the leaves some more, and I managed to convince the kids to do some self portraits. How was your halloween??

10/25/2007

School

It’s been a while since I discussed our schooling, so I guess it’s time for an update. We’re officially done with our first quarter and still going strong. I’m learning so much about my son, and am continually thrilled to be so deeply involved in his learning processes.
So, highlights from the last month: Playing “store” has gone over really well with all three kids. When we have art class, the kids have to “buy” all their art supplies (I give them the money). Great discussions about budgeting, making change, and all that. It’s fascinating to watch my children choose their purchases, and ponder their logic.
Science class has been really fun too. This month we’re doing a unit on water (how we use it, why we need it, and how we can change it for our own purposes). So we’re doing lots of experiments and recording all our observations in a journal. I could be wrong, but I think Alex enjoys recording his observations more than he enjoys the actual experiment itself.
His main dislikes include worksheets (big surprise) and reading (which is sort of a surprise). Books that he was reading with confidence in May are now a struggle. So I’m in the process of figuring out how to get him to practice his lightning words without him thinking he’s actually reading. But you know, if he just doesn’t want to read yet I guess that’ll be ok too. He’ll do it when he’s ready right?

10/22/2007

Mommy time.

This weekend my mom and I went to a scrapbooking event, and scrapped allllllll weekend. We arrived Friday after dinner, worked hard until about 2:00am, spent the night in the hotel and scrapped all day Saturday until about 1:00 am the next morning. I got about 8 pages done, which doesn’t sound like that much, until you realize it would have taken me more than 2 months to complete that amount at home. Highlights from the weekend include: the sheriff calling my friend at midnight on Friday about her teenage son (eek!), the fire alarm going off at 3:00 am on Saturday morning because someone in the hotel burned popcorn (double eek!), not getting enough sleep, and eating a really yummy dinner at the restaurant that services the hotel / campground / conference center. But now I’m paying for my weekend of playing. Lots of catching up to do. School work, house work, chores… blech.

10/18/2007

You know it's fall when...

pumpkins + a pile of freshly raked leaves = a fun fall afternoon.


10/16/2007

New pics

Hey, there are new pics of the kids in my sidebar. Most of you probably noticed them, but there if you're keeping up with us through bloglines, you wouldn't have noticed the change. So what do you think?

10/15/2007

Updates

Well much has happened since my last post. Alex went to his first session at Capable Kids, the learning center for special needs kids. He was a little nervous when we got there, but when he realized he already knew his teacher he was very cool. Heather said he did an awesome job, and he enjoyed it enough to go back.
Yesterday we had a fun family outing to the Apple Butter festival. There was much to see and do. Lots of yummy food, a bunch of living history encampments (Louisa and I went inside a tee pee!), and tons of arts and crafts. We managed to run into our friends, The Stammlers, see Alex’s teachers from Safety town (they were dressed as clowns for a story telling area), and shared a really yummy hot apple dumpling. Fun times. Oh, and here are some pics.

10/11/2007

My strange kid

So today I taught Alex how to sew. More accurately I taught him how to turn 8 yards of thread, 7 pieces of fabric and 4 buttons into a big jumbled mess. But hey, it kept him entertained for at least an hour, and he shows no interest in abandoning his project any time soon. Sweet. Maybe this means he won’t be tying my kitchen chairs together anymore…

10/09/2007

How could I forget?

Bad mom, forgot to share this somewhat important milestone, so here goes. I think it’s been a full year since my girls started to show progress in potty training. Sadly they’re still in diapers at night. (Slightly frustrating!) Well recently I broke down and started a reward program with a sticker chart and a promise of a really good treat after 5 dry nights. Well after probably 3 weeks, Louisa finally filled up her chart on Sunday! My mom and I took her out to lunch and let her pick out a new outfit. So the next time you see that little tater, give her a high five!

10/08/2007

Ugh

Another week gone, with nary a blog post. I’m not sure when it became such a low priority, but it’s a combination of not being able to think of anything to say, tired of sitting in front of the computer because there’s much to be done. I dunno.
Anyway.
So this last week. Hmmm. My friend Heather invited Alex to come be a part of her Kindergarten program one day a week. She runs a center for special needs children and needed a typical learning Kindergartener to be a “buddy” for her kids to practice their social skills with. He gets kindergarten credit for it too. Nice. This Friday is his first day, so I’ll let you know how it goes.
I just have to mention the crazy weather we have around here. It’s October 8th, and I’m sitting here at 9:00 am, in shorts and a tee – shirt. Insane. It was 93 degrees here yesterday. That has to be some kind of record.
Jory and I are continually chuckling at the projects that Mr. Alex thinks of. This morning he decided to make a coloring book for his dad. Complete with an illustration of Jory coloring, some cars to color, a map, a couple of mazes and a rainbow. I’m wondering if he’ll notice if I swipe it before he insists that his dad color in it.
And a funny Alex-ism:
A: “Mom, we need a dog”
Me: “why? I thought you were scared of dogs” which he is.
A: to keep away the wild animals.
Me: Uhhhhhhh… (where do I start on this one? The fact that there are no bears, or cougars here in our corner of the world to be scared of… the fact that we have WALLS to keep the critters out…) “We don’t need a dog, that’s what Dad is for.”
A: “I’d rather have a dog.”

10/01/2007

Alex art


One that Alex made on the computer for "school" today.

This week

Where does the time go? It seems like I just updated this thing, and it’s already a week out of date. Go figure. So what’s new in our house? Jory fixed my Ipod docking center. (It got fried last summer) so now I can listen to my music when I’m working at my desk instead of the dreadful radio (oh, the horror). You have no idea how ecstatic I am to have that thing fixed.
I spent the day yesterday making applesauce. Yum Yum Yum. My mom and the girls picked the apples a few weeks ago, and we spent a good portion of our Sunday cutting, coring, cooking and bagging. It was quite a project, but fun. Now my freezer is full of applesauce, and the kids can try out one of my favorite treats from when I was a kid. Good times.
I picked up a great teaching book at the library this weekend. (I love our library!!!) I can’t remember the exact title (and am too lazy to go look it up). But it was something like Math Excursions (for Kindergarten). It’s a unit based approach, that starts with a story and has at least 2 weeks worth of really really good activities tied to that specific story – but are generic enough that they can be adapted lots of different ways. Ohhhh the possibilities. The wheels are spinning.
Alex has thought of some great art projects this week. The first one is a book of ships. He made his own book with scrap paper (stapled together) with a different ship on each page. He chose a book about war ships at the library, and I think he went through the book and copied out some of the ships, then proceeded to adapt them to purposes that suited his needs. (One shoots fireballs). The other project that he came up with is a map of his planet (don’t ask). He took 9 sheets of 11 x 17 paper and proceeded to draw this huge map that incorporated all 9 sheets. It has a racetrack, some houses, and New Mexico. I really need to scan some of his work.

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